ON THIS DAY IN 1922, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Dr. Morten P. Porsild, director of the Danish Arctic Station at Disko, in Greenland, gave an illustrated lecture yesterday afternoon to a large audience in the laboratory building of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. His subject was the flora of Greenland and he gave an account of the mosses and plant life which are able to maintain a hold in this Arctic region, and on which the Eskimos, as well as the reindeer, depend in large measure for their sustenance. Dr. Porsild, who has been making investigations in this region for many years, discussed with the aid of maps the possible affinity of the flora of Greenland with that of the surrounding Arctic lands, and stated as his conclusion that it derives more of its species from America than from Europe.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1935, the Eagle reported, “The recent RCA annual report spoke of sight and sound programs (television) with pessimism. Television, we were told, was in the laboratory stage and no further. And now comes word from William S. Paley, prexy of the Columbia Broadcasting System, who tells his stockholders that ‘while progress has been and will be made in the technical development of television, there are many other problems to be solved. The problem of subsidizing the tremendous initial investments necessary to pioneer the new art is still far from solution.’ Better get new tubes for your radio set. Television won’t be here for some time. CBS grew from 92 to 97 stations last year, Paley reported, and advised that ‘the financial condition’ of the company ‘was never sounder’ with the ‘standards of radio broadcasting reaching new peaks.’”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “Some time tomorrow, in a converted Hunter College building in the Bronx, the United Nations Organizations will open for business as a going concern. The hovering menace of the atomic bomb, the charges and counter-charges growing out of Russia’s doings in Manchuria and, more especially, in Iran, the talk of a third World War in the making — all this has tended to obscure the importance of what may be a turning point in history, greater than any since history began. The day-to-date headlines speak of the squabbling controversies: Will or will not the Iran issue be postponed? Will the question come up as a dispute or a situation or a matter of procedure? And what about Russia’s veto? None of these will be long remembered. But it is quite likely that in ages to come, generations of children yet unborn, in schoolhouses all over the world, will in a Babel of languages commit to memory tomorrow’s date — March 25 — as the birthday of the UNO.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Eagle reported, “TOKYO (U.P.) — Gen. Douglas MacArthur flew to Korea today and authorized the 8th Army to cross the 38th Parallel, but at the same time offered to talk peace with the Communists on the battlefield. The supreme U.N. commander said on his return to Tokyo that he had directed the Allied Army to cross the old frontier between South and Communist North Korea ‘if and when its (the army’s) security makes it tactically advisable.’ MacArthur offered in a formal statement a few hours earlier to confer in the field ‘at any time’ with the Communist commander — presumably either North Korean Premier Gen. Kim Il Sung or Chinese Gen. Lin Biao — on means of ending the war. Asked on his return here if such a conference took place during today’s flying visit to the front, MacArthur replied: ‘There was no contact.’”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — Billions of years ago before the whirling Earth had settled into its present shape and structure, a gigantic glob protruded from the region now represented by the Pacific basin. Under the terrific rotational stresses imposed upon it, the glob broke away from the Earth and whirled into a high orbit above its parent. There in the course of time it went through unimaginable ordeals. Huge meteorites smashed into its face, leaving hundreds of craters. Tremendous volcanic eruptions all but turned it inside out. The eruptions poured vast rivers of fast-flowing volcanic ash into valleys and depressions, burying great regions miles deep in incandescent dust. This picture of the origin and evolution of the Moon was suggested yesterday by Dr. John A. O’Keefe in a lecture at the Goddard Space Flight Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.”
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Annabella Sciorra. Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include fashion designer Bob Mackie, who was born in 1939; paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, who was born in 1945; World Golf Hall of Famer Pat Bradley, who was born in 1951; fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, who was born in 1951; former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who was born in 1956; animator Bill Wray, who was born in 1956; former N.Y. Knicks coach Mike Woodson, who was born in 1958; “Weird Science” star Kelly LeBrock, who was born in 1960; “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” star Annabella Sciorra, who was born in Brooklyn in 1960; “Twin Peaks” star Lara Flynn Boyle, who was born in 1970; “Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parsons, who was born in 1973; “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star
Peyton Manning. Photo: Jack Dempsey/AP
Alyson Hannigan, who was born in 1974; Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, who was born in 1976; “It” star Jessica Chastain, who was born in 1977; “Boston Legal” star Lake Bell, who was born in 1979; and Basketball Hall of Famer Chris Bosh, who was born in 1984.
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FULL HOUSE: The British Parliament passed the Quartering Act on this day in 1765. It required the American colonies to provide barracks for British troops. If the barracks were insufficient, the colonies would be required to house the troops in livery stables, inns, ale houses, victualling houses and houses of wine sellers. And if there still wasn’t enough room, “the colonies were then required to take, hire and make fit for the reception of his Majesty’s forces, such and so many uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings as shall be necessary.”
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Jessica Chastain. Photo: Grant Pollard/Invision/AP
ALL SHOOK UP: Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army on this day in 1958. The 23-year-old rock n’ roll sensation and budding movie star was sent for training at Fort Hood in Texas and shipped out to West Germany from the Brooklyn Army Terminal in September. Sgt. Presley was discharged on March 5, 1960.
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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.
Quotable:
“Dinosaurs are the jumper cables to the human mind. Kids can’t curb their enthusiasm when they’re in a hall of dinosaurs and mammoths and mammoth hunters and trilobites and giant fish that could chomp up a shark.” — paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, who was born on this day in 1945.
SUNSET PARK — “As a resident of Marine Park, one of the great surprises I found biking around Industry City and visiting Japan Village was to discover Bush Terminal Park. I continue to be amazed at the serene hideaways that the city offers in some of the busiest places — and, still, with an iconic view.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — ‘A miracle that no one was killed …’ That’s what neighbors are saying about the collapse of the Hotel St. George marquee. Shown in this photograph are workmen beginning the removal and repair of the historic, old neon sign at the corner, referencing a relic of Brooklyn Heights’ past: the St. George Hotel.
ATLANTIC AVENUE — Exhausted shopper with cluster of bags and goods from mall at Boerum Place stops to look at huge construction site across the street. “Is that REALLY going to be a jail??” Her male companion is reassuring, “Nothing like Rikers … this is 21st Century.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Overheard in line at one of most popular pastry outlets on Montague Street: “Hope I can get them into a camp …” A mother with two pre-schoolers in tow was showing a friend the Dodge Y flyer for Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 18.
